Kids and Cars by Dr. Meredith

Motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of death from injury in children. It’s more than 50 percent of all pediatric trauma injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The number of deaths spike sharply as kids approach getting their driver's license. There's a great deal we can do in terms of preventing deaths and injuries. Those prevention strategies include driver's license strategies, drinking and driving strategies, automobile design and safety strategies, all of which have been effective and need to significant resources investments to continue and improve.

It is safer on our highways than it's ever been before. Per vehicle mile driven there are fewer deaths both in children and in everyone else. Nonetheless, it will be a long, long time before we eliminate motor vehicle crashes as a cause of injury or a cause of death.

Until that time occurs, another strategy that needs to be implemented is the development of trauma systems so that kids who are injured in crashes can be identified. Researchers are working on automatic crash notification systems that will identify if people are likely to have significant injuries in them and notify the system automatically.

You think about commercials of cars that look for the crash potentials, automatically slow down and proactively help the driver. It is equally possible for a car to sense how severe a crash is and automatically notify folks, from notification through the response. Once EMS is notified, they need to have localized people who can get to crashes quickly. When they arrive they need to have the training, expertise and equipment that is necessary to recognize and treat the injuries. 

In addition to funding crash notification research, the Childress Institute is committed to developing and providing training programs for all health care professionals. Surgeons, who treat mostly adults, need extra help in knowing how to treat kids. It's not as common and it's so emotionally charged which makes it difficult. The same thing is true for paramedics. They need that training and we're committed to developing it and disseminating educational programs for first responders. 

When an injury occurs, we need a good trauma system that can recognize kids with triage protocols. Responders need to comprehend who has injuries that require trauma center care and have ready access to get to trauma centers.

There are not enough trauma centers or pediatric trauma centers in our country. There's not enough coordination of the children's hospitals with the trauma centers and the trauma systems in our country. The Childress institute is working very hard to foster the development of more children's hospitals becoming trauma centers. We have worked very hard to support the Pediatric Trauma Society, which is a group of professionals whose goal is to further the knowledge and develop trauma systems and improve trauma centers.

The last piece of the puzzle is the actual care of injury victims and understanding more. So much of the treatment for these high energy crashes and the injuries that occur in them comes from extrapolation of injuries that occur in adults and the way we treat them. The research that is necessary to figure out the best way to treat specific injuries in children has not yet been done. And it must be.

The Childress Institute has already funded research investigating the relationship of shock and head injury, which are the top two causes of death from trauma in children from car crashes. The outcomes of this research could be revolutionary for the treatment of injured children. It's full impact and how generalizable that is, needs further research. We need to be at the forefront of helping get that done and we need funding to help us make that kind of research a reality. Then after we develop new knowledge, we need better tools to disseminate that knowledge to the caregivers in our country.

Currently it takes sometimes ten years for new knowledge to become the standard of care widely used. We need to shorten that cycle time. Can you imagine the cycle time of learning to develop a new way of setting up the shock absorbers for a certain race track? If that took ten years, many teams would be extinct. You have to make these turnarounds at least every week. Health care needs to get there and trauma leaders need to forge the path.

- Dr. J. Wayne. Meredith, Medical Advisor, Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma

Teen Driver Safety Week

During Teen Driver Safety Week, Discuss the “5 to Drive”

For many teenagers, getting a driver’s license is an important rite of passage. For parents, however, it can be a time of concern.

It’s no small matter to hand the keys of a two-ton vehicle over to a son or daughter who not that long ago was having their training wheels taken off their bike. It’s particularly worrying when you know that motor vehicle crashes are the number one killer of 14- to 18-year-olds. 

In 2012, there were 2,055 teen drivers involved in fatal crashes, and 859 (42 percent) of those teen drivers were killed in the crashes.

But rather than worry, be ready: use Teen Driver Safety Week, which starts on Sunday and runs through October 25, as a time to set some ground rules. We call these rules the “5 to Drive,” and they might just save your child’s life. We’re asking parents and guardians to discuss these five basic rules for safe teen driving:

·         No cell phone use or texting while driving

·         No extra passengers

·         No speeding

·         No alcohol

·         No driving or riding without a seat belt

We need parents to discuss the “5 to Drive” with their young driver because these dangerous driving behaviors are what is claiming young lives on America’s roadways. We need teens to take these rules seriously. That will only happen if parents establish these ground rules with their children—and back them up with a zero-tolerance policy. Unsafe driving means no driving. That’s a promise you should make to your child because it’s a promise that will keep them safe and that they will take seriously. After all, no teen with a driver’s license wants to end up back on the school bus because mom or dad took away the car keys.

Whether it’s drunk or distracted driving, not wearing seat belts, or speeding, we need to redouble our efforts to help our nation's young people make the right choices—as drivers and passengers. So let’s get the safety conversation started. Use the “5 to Drive” and set the rules before your teens hit the road.  And then keep the conversation going.

Adults, control the keys. “5 to Drive” is a message that needs to be reinforced again and again.

- David Friedman, Deputy Administrator of the National Highway Safety Administration

Child Passenger Safety Week: Research, Register, and Reach Out to Help Others

As the father of a young son, I know the worries that accompany the joys of parenthood.

As a parent you will always worry. But, there will come a day when you can worry less: maybe once you see a son or daughter graduate college, find career success, or get married. And until then, it’s up to us to keep our children safe.

That’s why we’re reaching out directly to parents and to organizations committed to protecting children about car seat safety as part of Child Passenger Safety Week, which runs from September 14-20. We want everyone to know that protecting children means researching the correct car seat, making sure it’s registered so you’re notified of any safety recalls, and -- if you’re as committed to this issue as we are at NHTSA -- to reaching out and spreading the word about car seat safety on social media this week.

Research.

One of the first purchases for any new parent is a car seat. Your child cannot travel safely unless he or she is restrained in a car seat that is appropriate for your child and that has been been properly installed. But how are parents to know what seat is best? With the help of NHTSA’s new Car Seat Finder every parent or caregiver can quickly and easily identify the type of car seat that will best protect your child. Additionally, our Parents Central Page at SaferCar.gov offers lots of other helpful tips for protecting our kids.

Register.

But our responsibilities don’t end with the selection and purchase of the right car seat or booster seat. In order to be informed of any possible safety recalls your car seat must be registered with the manufacturer. Yet far too many fail to register their seats.

As soon as you bring a new car seat home, immediately mail the postage-paid registration car that comes with it. If you can’t find the card, don’t worry; this web page allows you to register your seat online.

Our “SaferCar” app for iOS -- and the new Android version we recently launched -- also offer access to recall information, NHTSA’s 5-Star Safety Ratings, and other helpful information. “Snail mail” also remains a central way to notify Americans of safety recalls, which is why NHTSA recently mandated that all manufacturers use a new, distinctive label on required mailings so that notices aren’t lost among the junk mail.

Reach Out.

If you or your organization wants to help spread the word throughout Child Passenger Safety Week and beyond, we hope you’ll participate in our Twitter chat on September 17. You can follow the chat or participate by using the hashtag #therightseat. You can also enhance your engagement with your followers by using marketing materials we’ve made available to the public at trafficsafetymarketing.gov and sharing brief videos on the topic from our Vine page.

It’s About Keeping Kids Safe in Car Seats

If you want to be sure your car seat or booster seat is safe, or help others protect kids, then remember following steps.

When you hear about a car seat or booster seat recall, be sure to:

·         Find out which models and manufacture dates are involved.

·         Call the manufacturer or visit their Web site for more information and to verify if your car seat or booster seat has been recalled; or

·         Call NHTSA’s toll-free Auto Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236.

Before you call, have the following information:

·         Manufacturer’s name

·         Model Name

·         Model Number

·         Date of Manufacture

If your car seat is recalled get it fixed right away.

If you don’t have another car seat or booster seat to use, keep using the recalled seat while you wait for the repair kit—if the recall notice says you can. Using a recalled car seat or booster seat is almost always safer than letting a child ride in just a seat belt. Many problems are minor but some are serious. All problems should be fixed as soon as possible.

The Bottom Line is Our Kids’ Safety.

There will come a day when parents can worry less, but until then, it’s up to us to keep our children safe. 

- By David J.Friedman, Acting Administrator, NHTSA

Kids and Cars: Automotive Injuries

As a parent, I know the worries about keeping a child safe. From their first trip home from the hospital to the simple act of crossing the street, to be a parent is to worry. Did I buy the right car seat? Are they looking both ways? And some day, will I make clear the responsibilities that come with the privilege of driving?

At the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, we work to help parents keep their kids safe across every stage of a child’s development: from the infant and the toddler all the way up to the teenager just learning to drive. We want them to have the tools and knowledge they need to stay safe and hope they will never, ever, have to see the inside of a trauma center.

Yet we lose nearly 10,000 children each year due to traumatic injury, a large percentage of whom suffered due to motor vehicle crashes.

In 2012, roughly one-in-ten people killed in traffic fatalities were under the age of 18. That year alone, we lost 2,980 children and young people to injuries in traffic crashes that were completely preventable.

That is why we are doing more at NHTSA to keep our kids safe from harm.

We’ve been working hard to better protect a vehicle’s most vulnerable occupants—infants and toddlers—by improving standards for child seats. NHTSA is taking a significant step forward in the protection of children by proposing upgrades to the federal motor vehicle safety standard for child restraint systems.

The proposed upgrades would include the first ever side impact crash test for car seats sold in the U.S. that are designed for children weighing up to 40 pounds. The tests would use both an existing 12-month-old child crash test dummy, and a newly-developed side impact dummy representing a 3-year-old.

Parents, guardians and care providers can search for current vehicle and child seat safety recalls and find where they can get help installing child car seats at Safercar.gov and through our Safercar app, which is available for iPhone and for Android devices.

On the other end of the child development spectrum, NHTSA is working to help families discuss safety with their young driver through our 5 to Drive campaign.

5 to Drive is about getting parents and guardians to engage in an ongoing discussion with teens about safe driving. And it needs to happen right now because we’re losing too many young people in crashes that are 100 percent preventable.

•          Motor vehicle crashes are the number one killer of 14- to 18-year-olds

•          In 2011, more than 2,300 people were killed in crashes involving a teen (14 to 18) driver

•          Nearly 60 percent of those killed were teen drivers and teen passengers

Despite the dangers to our young people, a recent survey reported that only 25 percent of parents had a driving safety discussion with their young driver. If we’re to save lives, that discussion has to start today with the help of 5 to Drive.

I appreciate the hard work of the women and men of the Childress Institute, your advocacy on behalf of the health and safety of young people, and for the opportunity to discuss these issues and advances in automotive safety. Together, as partners in protecting children, Childress and NHTSA can help to save lives, and to ensure that all children have the opportunity to grow up healthy and happy, and to fulfill their enormous potential.

by David Friedman, Acting Administrator, NHTSA